The Chinese regime gave new proof that it is expanding its control over religious freedom with the arrest of a nun and more than a dozen believers who were organizing a pilgrimage to Europe.
The complaint was published on the China Aid website, aimed at exposing the growing persecution led by Xi Jinping’s dictatorship. According to the portal, Catholic Xiang Qiaoyun, 40, has been detained for more than three months for leading the trip. In addition to her, the entire group was detained.
The nun is part of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart community, located south of Shanghai. She was accused of leading an “illegal” pilgrimage of around 20 faithful who were to visit Catholic holy sites in France and Italy in June. Qiaoyun remains imprisoned, while 14 faithful who were part of the caravan were released in recent months.
Despite having complied with the legal requirements to obtain visas, the Chinese regime classified the trip as an “illegal departure”, claiming that she and the others in the group did not declare it as a religious activity.
According to the French Catholic newspaper The Crossthe nun denied the accusation and insisted that she was merely fulfilling her religious duty by helping believers carry out a traditional pilgrimage. China Aid reported that the nun remains in solitary detention and could even face life in prison.
Although China’s Constitution defends religious freedom as a citizen’s guarantee, in practice, this right is increasingly suppressed by Xi Jinping’s dictatorship, through the imposition of communist ideology and constant surveillance in places of worship.
